A few years ago, Sreedhar Rao was just another software engineer from Hyderabad who had done his masters in the US and made his career in California. Filmmaking was a latent desire for him but his life remained mundane and monotonous with his job. Then came his decision to put in his papers, he returned to Hyderabad and pursued his storytelling ambitions in Telugu cinema. Meanwhile, one of his short films based on a single character in a room, shot without any dialogue, earned him considerable acclaim across media. That’s when he realised a good way to develop a style of his own was through short films.
The Kompally resident went a few miles ahead of Medchal to film another story that is his personal take on the usage of nuclear weapons across nations. What he does through the short titled Aayudham is to make a cop’s gun his metaphor of a nuclear weapon and tells us how one incident changes the life of many people in the town. It narrates the story of a cop who had never used a gun all his life. The short film that was screened at Prasad Preview Theatre recently has earned a nomination at the Dadasaheb Phalke Film Festival, which features short film submissions across the globe.
“I had been watching a National Geographic documentary on how nuclear weapons could destroy nations like Afghanistan, North Korea and I was also affected by the gun-culture in the US. I felt I had to do something to restore the noble side of a human, which I basically did through the mother's character in the short film,” Sreedhar mentions.
Some of the actors in Aayudham were picked up from the cast of the feature film Bommala Ramaram . “The actors improvised on the spot and the shoot was done in one straight schedule. It was interesting to get a wholesome perspective of the craft, the sound, the dubbing and the photography. All I had in mind were a few western music influences but the composer Vamsi Krishna made the most of what I had asked,” Sreedhar says.
In the midst of finalising a feature film offer, Sreedhar Rao finds short films quite challenging. “You don’t need to struggle to raise money for short films. The job is done when friends pitch in with contributions. What sometimes gets tough is to get actors to listen to your scripts. Before I make a feature film, I am passionate about a story of a cab driver, which will be shot soon,” signs off the avid fan of Mani Ratnam, Ramgopal Varma and Shyam Benegal.
